Not the Villain - The Evil Queen's Retelling of Snow White

23 Years, Eight Months and 18 Days Ago

I stormed through the corridors of the palace, whipping my head left and right for one person in particular. I finally saw her among her clique of duchesses and handmaidens, giggling and exchanging jewellery to put around their dainty wrists.

I walked up to her and fearlessly pushed past all the other girls and their monstrous layered gowns. "Meet me in the garden in five minutes," I practically spat out at her. At the moment I didn't care that she was the Queen of this kingdom. She was a peasant and never belonged here in the first place, so she had no right to steal Casimir from me, much less try to poison me. She needed to know that just because she was Casimir's oh-so-beautiful wife doesn't mean she could strut around as if she owned everything.

I stalked away, heading straight towards the palace doors and threw them open, barely giving the guards standing beside them a curt nod. Once outside, the scent of roses and grass had an immediate calming effect on me. I wandered around, trying to find a nice place that was out of earshot. I tried to clear my mind, determined not to let Evelyn get to me. Somewhere deep down I realised that I would be in deep trouble for acting like this towards the goddamn Queen of the entire kingdom, but I pushed those thoughts aside. One step at a time, Amethyst.

I looked around to see where my feet had taken me. My heart clenched painfully, skipping a beat, as I took in the familiar S-shape of the rose bushes, the path laid with stone that looked like salt crystals, the ivy climbing up the oaken bridge arching over a pond.

It was the glade where Casimir proposed to me.

Every emotion I had tried so hard to hold back came flooding back into me. I was underwater, as if looking back into the past through the lens of a dream. Had he really stood there, at the nook of a curve, holding my hand? Had he really smiled at me, and looked up at me with hope-filled eyes, reflecting the golden of dawn...

A slight chuckling sounded to my left and I whipped my head around to face its source. Evelyn was leaning against the bridge, examining her nails carelessly with an amused expression on her face. The hurt I had felt mere moments before dissipated, to be replaced by bubbling hatred and fury.

"It was you!" I snarled at her.

"What about me?" Evelyn returned coolly without flinching.

"YOU TRIED TO POISON ME!" I screamed.

"And failed, unfortunately."

"You killed Ronnie!" My fingers itched to hit her, pull her hair, anything to make her feel just a fraction of the pain I was feeling now.

"Well I'm sorry okay? I made a mistake. I get it. What do you want me to do? Bring her back to life? Turn back time? And don't you dare stand here yelling at me when it's partially your fault, too! You should've left when I told you to!"

I took a deep breath, forcing myself to ignore the last statement. "You'll pay for this. You'll be hanged, mark my words--"

"I-What? No! You can't-- you have no evidence..."

I smiled, satisfactorily. I wanted her to feel flustered and scared, I wanted her to pay for what she had done, I wanted her... dead. I wanted to hear her tortured screams begging for mercy as she was devoured alive by scorching flames. "Oh trust me, you'll be hanged. Justice will always prevail at the end. Do you know why, Evelyn? You're just a peasant. You will never amount to anything. Just a useless pretty face. And even worse than that: you are evil. Your very existence is wrong." I paused, leaning towards her as she shrank back. "Witch."

She had that evil glint in her eyes, and I felt the imminent danger on my skin. I knew she was up to something when she broke down into sobs. Suddenly I felt cold, aware that I had made a mistake, I had let my emotions get the better of me. I swallowed hard, gritting my teeth.

Shock shot like ice through my veins when Casimir appeared out of nowhere, wrapping Evelyn in his arms.

"Amethyst." He growled.

I inhaled sharply at the harshness in his voice. "Y-You heard her, right?" I spluttered. "She admitted that she tried to poison me! She confessed!"

"What I heard is you screaming at her. What I heard was you calling her a witch."

Tears sprang into my eyes at the unfairness of it all. She was a witch! I was at loss for words. "She tried to poison me! She killed my best friend! She deserves it!" My voice rose in desperation.

Evelyn was still pretending to cry, with fake tears streaming down her face. "Sh-she poisoned her maid to set me up, and th-then threatened me! She said I was just a spoiled b-brat, and I don't belong here the palace because I'm just a mere peasant and I'll never be anything more than that, and I-I'm just a useless pretty face! She said I-I would be hanged! P-please don't let me be hanged, Casimir! Please!" She broke out in a fresh wave of tears. If I hadn't known better, I would've thought they were real tears. I would've thought that my words actually hurt her.

"Casimir, she's lying!" I was out of options. "You know I wouldn't say that! Casimir, please, you know me! Listen to your--"

"Leave." He snarled.

"Casimir--"

"LEAVE!"

I heard the blood rushing in my ears, turning my body hot, then cold, then hot again. I couldn't believe it. No, this wasn't happening, it couldn't be happening. It's a dream. It was just a dream. None of this was real. I wish it wasn't real. I didn't notice the tear leaving a trail down my cheek. I didn't notice the wink Evelyn threw my way when Casimir wasn't looking. I opened my mouth to speak, to beg, to scream, but no sound came out. Casimir's eyes were cold as they glared at me, with no emotion left inside.

There was nothing I could say to him anymore. I turned and fled, out the gardens, out of the palace walls, away from him, away from everything. I sobbed as I ran, not a fake sobbing like Evelyn's but a sobbing that held the truth of my heart breaking, breaking, breaking.